Bill: Five-to-10 years for heroin trafficking

A syringe found next to a bench is a sign of the region’s heroin problem. A bill has been filed by a Northern Kentucky lawmaker that would heavily punish traffickers if passed.
(Photo:
The Enquirer/Patrick Reddy
)

Criminal penalties for heroin traffickers would increase if the Kentucky General Assembly passes a bill filed by a Northern Kentucky lawmaker.

But will longer prison sentences lead to less heroin on the streets?

Both sides of the debate hope the legislature won’t fail to pass reforms, like it did this year when heroin legislation fell apart at the last minute. That bill would have increased both treatment options for addicts and increased penalties for high-volume heroin traffickers. Instead, it sat in committee for months and failed to get a vote in the House in the final minutes of the session.

Sen. John Schickel, R-Union, filed a bill for the 2015 session that would make selling any amount of heroin on the first offense a class C felony, which carries five to 10 years in prison. He filed the same bill last year.

In an effort to reduce the prison population, the General Assembly in 2011 lowered the penalty for a first offense for those caught selling under two grams of heroin to a class D felony, which carries one to five years in prison.

Current law requires only 20 percent of the sentence be served. Schickel’s bill would require 50 percent of the sentence be served.

“I’m convinced we need to crack down on heroin dealers and send them to prison for a long, long time,” said Schickel, a former U.S. Marshal and jailer.

Many in law enforcement said they believe this would effectively deter traffickers from crossing the border into Kentucky.

For areas on the border, such as Northern Kentucky, criminal penalties do play a factor in whether dealers will come to a state, said Bill Mark, director of the Northern Kentucky Drug Strike Force.

“I can tell you prior to the legislative changes in 2011, when it involved a trafficker bringing controlled substances like heroin from Ohio into Kentucky, many times the trafficker would express reluctance to travel into Kentucky for the purposes of trafficking,” Mark said. “It served as a deterrent at least from traffickers bringing heroin from other states.”

Those who’ve lost family members, however, don’t want the law to punish addicts selling to feed their habit.

They want the state to make help more available. First responders, including police and small fire departments, as well as family members of the victim, need to have access to and freedom from liability to administer medicine known as naloxone to overdose victims to counteract the heroin, said Noel Stegner, of Fort Thomas, whose grandson Nicholas Specht died of a heroin overdose. The heroin legislation that failed to pass this year would have done that.

Heroin addicts need treatment and not prison, he said.

“I want to see them treat heroin like a disease, not a sinful thing no one wants to be around,” Stegner said. “The real sellers, the real pushers should go to jail, not the kids selling a little bit to feed their habit.”

Stegner, and other members of Specht’s family started NKY Hates Heroin to help addicts and their families and to fight for change. Stegner said they’re going to make sure the next session, which begins in January, won’t end like this year’s session.

“We will put ourselves in their face,” Stegner said. “There are a number of groups besides NKY Hates Heroin. We will be in Frankfort as often as we can.” ■

How heroin penalties for first offenses compare in Ohio and Kentucky:

Kentucky: Selling under two grams of heroin is a class D felony, punishable by one to five years in prison with at least 20 percent of the sentence needing to be served before being eligible for parole. For more than two grams, it’s a class C felony, punishable by five to 10 years in prison

Ohio: First offense felony trafficking of heroin under one gram carries a possible prison sentence of six months to a year; one to five grams carries a possible prison sentence of six to 18 months